Gokudô heiki (2011) Reviews

• Over the top mayhem

  KBeee2011-05-07

  If you liked Machine Girl, Tokyo Gore Police or Versus you'll love this. Starting with an homage to Rambo, Tak Sakaguchi's "Yakuza Weapon" quickly ascends to the realms of tongue-in-cheek over the top violence and gore that only Asian cinema seems to reach. Tak Sakaguchi plays Shozo Iwaki, the son of a Japanese Yakuza boss, who returns to Japan after 4 years as a mercenary in South America to avenge his fathers death. If a Hollywood Good Guy can implausibly be missed by a machine gun at point blank range, or outrun an explosion in slow motion, then Shozo can be missed or dodge 10 automatics, and surf the explosion to the Baddies tent! Plus homing sticks of dynamite... catching RPG's in your bare hands... spikes on the bottom of his shoes that'll put a hole right through your head... you get my drift. It's hilarious. Many laugh out loud moments, and spontaneous applause at the end (only the third time I've heard that in a UK cinema). Highly recommended. On a side note, there is one scene where Shozo walks up a stairway killing all the foes he meets on his way, that was supposed to be shot in one take after 2 hours rehearsal, but they needed 2 takes because Tak broke his neck during the first take! That's dedication for you.

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• I figured it would suck. I figured wrong.

  Bthomas682012-07-22

  I love Asian gore films. Sillier the better ( Versus )( Machine Girl ) etc. Even some Meatball Machine. The movie actually kinda shines. Doesn't get overboard goofy without reason. Movie is silly, but plausible. SFX are pretty damned good considering everything they're blowing up. Fun, full of action, couples bitching, Shozo has a lot deal with. I'm not sure what to talk about since there isn't a strong based plot. Shozo does have a great "Yellin" at voice. Nothing else to say. Guys will like it. Their girls couldn't care less. So i'll keep typing slow until I can post this review. My first review and I got nothing more to say.

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• Weak movie in an otherwise extreme genre...

  paul_haakonsen2013-08-25

  For a movie in the extreme genre that has root in Japan, then "Yakuza Weapon" ("Gokudô Heiki") was fairly boring and uninteresting. Especially, because by comparison to movies such as "Machine Girl", to pick a single movie in the genre, then "Yakuza Weapon" seemed pointless and irrelevant. The storyline is about a Yakuza member who returns to Japan after having served in some war in the times post World War II, and he has to fight against rival Yakuza people. This was basically all there was to the storyline, it didn't have anything interesting to offer - unless you count irrelevant action sequences and fighting for leverage solid enough to make the foundation of a movie. The acting in the movie was, as with other movies in this particular genre, over the top and not to be taken too seriously. As for the effects and the action sequences, well, don't expect anything overly impressive or anywhere remotely near what you can see in other movies in the genre. "Yakuza Weapon" is a boring movie that failed to capture my attention, and it became a losing battle to just sit through it to the end. I gave up on the movie and will not make a second attempt to finish it, because the movie had nothing to offer; weak storyline, poor special effects and a total sense of meaning to the movie. I am rating the movie a mere 3 out of 10 stars rating, purely because of the production value of the movie and the acting - everything else was just irrelevant.

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• Entertaining but Outlandish Japanese Yakuza Epic

  zardoz-132012-04-28

  Nipponese filmmakers Tak Sakaguchi and Yudai Yamaguchi co-wrote and co-directed the outlandish, larger-than-life, Asian actioneer "Yakuza Weapon" about honor and vengeance in contemporary Japan. They used Ken Ishikawa's manga as the basis for their screenplay. This audacious crime thriller resembles "RoboCop" in part because the protagonist turns into half-man and half-weapon after a radical surgical procedure. Furthermore, this epic boasts a high body count with cartoonish action sequences. Indeed, blood, guts, and gore splatter this swiftly-paced but wholly improbable contemporary shoot'em up with a double-digit body count. Sakaguchi and Yamaguchi never miss a moment to poke fun at their characters and their predicament. The son of a yakuza boss, Shozo Iwaki, learns that his father has been murdered. When he returns home from the jungle, he resolves to exact vengeance. Before it is over, Japan's best doctors and engineers have installed a M61 Vulcan in his right arm so all he has to do is snap his wrist and this multi-barreled cannon sprouts from his limb. Meanwhile, as a presumable back-up, our pugnacious protagonist has an anti-tank missile launcher in his left knee-cap. The worst thing about "Yakuza Weapon" is the marginal special effects, but this 105 minute ruckus never wears out its welcome. "Yakuza Weapon" opens with this prologue: "In the mid 1950s, in the midst of post-war chaos, organized crime units known as "kumi" sprung up throughout Japan. They became the yakuza. The yakuza underworld is ruled by chivalry and loyalty. This is known as "jingi." If a yakuza violated the "jingi," there is hell to pay for the yakuza live and die by this principle." The action unfolds deep in the South American jungle as soldiers in camouflage fatigues with submachine guns blaze away with fusillade after fusillade at our fearless hero Shozo Iwaki (Tak Sakaguchi) and his two companions. The defiant Iwaki wears a fedora and a huge red sash around his waist as smokes a cigarette in front of them while uttering comments like: "You only get hit when you're afraid of getting hit. I can scare landmines with a glare! It's time to settle the score." He charges headlong into a squad of machine gun wielding troops and dodges every round they fire at him. Moreover, he manages to survive exploding grenades as they go off near him. Once he makes it to the shooters, he uses martial arts to fight them, taking on as many as three at a time. Even after he has disarmed them, they brandish knives and fight. After he triumphs over these troops, he steps on a landmine and uses it to catapult him out of the jungle and into Colonel Joseph's headquarters where they battle to the death. When Colonel Joseph opens fire on Shozo at point blank range with a submachine gun, our hero thrusts his iron-soled shoe forward like a shield to deflect the lead and then shoves it into the officer's face, burying several bolt-like nails into his face so that he looks like a sieve. Afterward, Shozo encounters two Japanese government agents who have news for him about his father. They inform him that his father (Maro Akaji) was shot 88 times six months ago when he left a Western Japan Yakuza council meeting. Nevertheless, Shozo's father remained alive long enough to kill his assailant. As it turns out, Shozo wasn't really on good terms with his dad. The last time that they spoke, his father threatened to kill him if he saw him again, all because Shozo wanted to take over the family business. For the record, our hero has been in exile for four years when he receives the new. Shozo and his cohorts parachute from a propeller-drive plane over Tokyo and head to a loan store that once headquartered their operation. Shozo encounters Yakuza business leader Kurawaki (Shingo Tsurumi), learns that the latter controls the family business, and betrayed his father. "Yakuza Weapon" is overboard in every aspect but delivers consistently entertaining material. Of course, there isn't a stitch of realism in this insane nonsense, but it is fun to watch what happens. My favorite scene occurs in the hospital room after the surgeons have grafted an electrically powered Gatling gun to his arm. Several machine gun toting dames masquerading as nurses enter our hero's room and he surprises them with his new arsenal. Literally, he shoots one treacherous nurse with a burst of gunfire that keeps her spinning in the air above him before she vanishes in a bloody explosion.

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• Pretty Awful

  gavin69422012-02-27

  This is the story of a yakuza member who goes off to be a mercenary in South America, and returns to find the criminal underworld run by his enemies. While this movie has some funny parts, and the story has some level of potential, it is just so poorly made. The film quality is bad, the special effects are bad, the CGI is bad. The only film I can remotely compare this to is "Machine Girl", with one big difference: Machine Girl is awesome, and this film is awful. Fans of Asian sci-fi may enjoy it, I am not sure. But I just found practically nothing redeeming in it. My suggestion is to avoid this.

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